How to Make an Arctic Ocean Small World from a Fruit Tray

I have never posted a lot of small world play mostly because my kids weren't really into it until now. The girls love small things, but they mostly use them with their lego friends. Eli however, he loves all the small animals! 

On a whim one day when his sisters were in a "no boys allowed" mood, I grabbed this blue fruit tray (you know the ones that separate fruit during shipping) to create him an ocean.

It was a quick and easy small world, but he loved all of it. The ridges in the fruit tray were great waves, and I added cotton balls for ice and snow since we were adding arctic animals. So penguins, sea lions, and walrus went on the cotton.

While sharks and whales swam in the icy water. The hammerhead shark was (and still is) his favorite shark!

He played with this thing for near an hour! In fact it then disappeared to his room where he played with it until it completely fell apart from use! 

Always nice to have a simple yet entertaining set up! What other fun things could you use a fruit tray for?